Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > Slavic and Baltic Division

Collection Description

... the Slavic and Baltic Division of the library provided, and has continued to provide, a curious sort of haven--a haven of quiet and decorum, of unspoken understanding, sympathy, and support, a haven of shared reverence for the great and tragic and immensely dramatic and moving history of the Russian people and of the other Slavic and Baltic peoples whose history is represented and preserved in these premises.

George F. Kennan
At a Century's Ending: Reflections 1982-1995
New York: Norton, 1996

Certainly everyone who works in our field realizes the enormous debt we owe to The New York Public Library for fostering and maintaining essential materials for research. This collection has been an invaluable resource for generations of scholars.

AAASS President Norman Naimark
From a letter issued on the Centennial of the Slavic and Baltic Division, July 14, 1998

The Slavic and Baltic Division is the locus for the Library's single largest concentration of Slavic and Baltic vernacular language monographic and serial materials, with more than 465,323 volumes, 1,200 current serials, and 21,800 microform titles.

As of January, 1998, a count of physical volumes in the Division revealed the following:

Languages/Categories	Total Vols.	% of Total
Special Categories*	37,492	9%
Reference:	16,014	4%
Belarusian:	4,728	1%
Bulgarian:	11,341	3%
Carpatho-Rusyn**	26	n/a
Czech, Slovak:	27,563	7%
Latvian:	9,675	2%
Lithuanian:	8,483	2%
Macedonian:	1,106	.4%
Polish:	60,070	15%
Russian:	161,140	39%
Serbo-Croation:	23,964	6%
Slovenian:	3,957	1%
Ukrainian:	16,527	4%
Wendish/Sorbian:	486	.2%
Annex Collection***	31,190	7%

*Includes serials, pamphlets, collection-level cataloging, rare and illustrated books, etc.

**After 1996, cataloged separately.

***Includes serial and other materials in various Slavic and Baltic languages, as well as unclassified "J" classmark titles cataloged as part of the backlog reduction projects of the late 1980s.

Materials in Albanian, Finno-Ugric, Romany, and the many non-Slavic languages of the Former Soviet Union are held by other Library units. In addition, upwards of 300,000 volumes of Slavica and Baltica in Western European languages, as well as archival and visual materials, are found in other divisions of the Library.

Given the linguistic breadth and subject depth of the collections, developed over a century, a succinct characterization of these holdings is difficult. Many collections are of "museum quality," and include many great rarities. However, the following categories of material stand out as possessing particular international significance:

The Reference Room (Rm. 216) collection, comprised of many rare small print-run titles and encyclopedias, is a unique "gateway" to collections in the West, as well in Eastern and Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union, permitting Western researchers to plan in advance which archives and libraries to visit, and what materials they may expect to find in each.
The largest and most wide-ranging collection of early Slavic imprints in the United States, including one of only two cataloged Cyrillic incunabula in the country, and two illuminated manuscripts dating from the 14th century. The collection of manuscripts, books, and ephemera from the period before 1860 is one of the finest in North America. This collection is supplemented through gift and purchase on a regular basis.
One of the world's premier collections of resources for the study of the Baltic and Slavic emigrations to North America and Europe between 1918 and 1950 generally, with particularly rich holdings relating to New York Metropolitan area settlements, including nationally significant collections relating to the Belarusian, Bulgarian, Latvian, and Carpatho-Rusyn communities.
Thousands of original photographs, illustrated, and plate books, including many from the personal and palace libraries of the Russian Imperial family.
An outstanding collection of books designed by artists of the East European Futurist and Constructivist movements.

Recent publications have served to document holdings in several of these categories.

The Slavic and Baltic Division has served generations of scholars, professionals, and New York's diverse émigré communities for more than a century. It is hoped that new, and longtime readers alike will find the following series of web pages to be an informative, practical overview of our collections and activities as we begin our next hundred years of service in the new Millennium.